Little Mareep
by Reader Of Fate
Summary: What happens when ash is seprated from friends and trys to catch a ranches pokemon Rated M For Safe I Did not Wite This Storie i merly took it over all Credit Gose to shinythrowaway on DA
1. Rural Headache

Little Mareep, Chapter 1: Rural Headache

Brock read aloud from the guide. "Agria is a small, agricultural province that the tourist brochures call 'the shared garden of humans and Pokemon'. There's only one city, with the rest being countryside, farms and Poke-Ranches."

There was a paragraph about the vast beauty of it all, how the horizon of each hill made them wonder what lied beyond it, how the open fields were so green with life that the colour touched the very soul, how there were wild Pokemon roaming in the dense woodlands and alongside the flowing river - but why read that part aloud when our heroes Ash, Misty and Brock, standing atop a great hill, could see it all with their own eyes?

"You'll like this part, Ash." Brock continued, "Apparently there are some rare Pokemon in this place, even ones that aren't from Johto."

The boy fistpumped whilst searching the horizon for the first place to start. "Sweet."

"The PokeRanches are something else, too. Their care standards with pokemon are very high. Some ranchers make special ingredients that are used in the world's most expensive skin, hair and beauty-care products."

"The most amazing, you mean!" Misty added affably. "My sisters use that stuff all the time. Just rub its shampoo in your hair and it'll be silk-soft in no time."

"Wow," said Ash, deadpanned, "from Brock's description I thought it was something valuable." The boy rolled his eyes in disgust.

"Grr, dumb little boys like you can't appreciate anything that isn't piggish, can you?!"

"It's not my fault if girls can't do anything valuable with their free time!" Ash retorted, and the two locked glares against each other.

"I'd call 'not smelling like garbage' to be pretty important, thank you."

"Or end up smelling like a completely different kind of garbage."

"If you're going to be that narrow-minded then you shouldn't even be allowed to hear about nice things!"

"It would sure save me a lot of grief!"

"Take it easy, you two, there's enough to do here for everyone." Brock rested a hand on both their shoulders. This wasn't the first fight Ash and Misty had over something 'boyish' or 'girlish', and Brock knew it wouldn't be the last. Why couldn't they appreciate both things?

"Misty, you and I can see if we can get a discount on some of those brands in the city, and all three of us can find out first-hand some breeding techniques the ranchers use. That's something we can all enjoy."

"And then Pikachu and I can find some nice Pokemon to catch!" Ash cheered. What kind of Pokemon were there to catch? Bug types? Steel? He couldn't wait to find them.

"Let's hold on, Ash, we only just got here." Misty said, putting a pause to her friend's passion. "There are ranches out here, remember? How do we know which Pokemon are wild and which ones belong to someone?"

"What are you talking about? We can just use the pokedex to tell which-"

A great clopping sound on pebbled ground distracted Misty from whatever he was moaning about after that. Behind them was a giant carriage, being dragged by at least six spirited Ponyta moving at a breackneck pace, and the three friends were right in its way!

Panicked, they each dove out of the way to the side of the road, avoiding injury by an inch. But an angered Ash was quick to his feet, and before the carriage was far away, shouted back.

"Hey, what's the big idea?! You almost trampled all over us, you rude jerk!"

Ash had hoped whoever was inside had heard him, and when the charging carriage came to a sudden halt, he guessed so.

Out stepped from the carriage a butler, who opened the back door for a tall noblewoman, dressed in high-lifestyle clothing, wearing far too much makeup, and with her long black hair sharpened and extravagantly stylised. Ash would have been fighting back laughter at how ridiculous she looked if he wasn't so angry.

She walked over to him very closely, and it was clear how she towered over them all, even Brock. "Who are you, little child?"

Ash was a little intimidated by the gravitas in her voice, but he did not back down. "Ash Ketchum, from Pallet Town."

"And what did you just call me back there?"

"I-I thought you were really inconsiderate, the way your carriage just charged at us like that!"

With a heave so great that a shampoo bottle dropped from her pocket, the lady slapped him stingingly across the face.

"How dare you! Could you not tell that you were at fault in that situation?"

Ash would have continued the fight, but he was busy trying to fight back the tears from that slap.

"Excuse me now, but anyone would have agreed that you weren't fair then!" Misty shouted back.

"Is that so?" The noblewoman clicked her fingers, and on cue came barging out of the carriage a policeman and a pair of Growlithe. The dogs quickly began barking and sniffing the trio, while the policeman stood dutifully beside the noblewoman.

"Police Deputy Chief Harrington, what did you think of my butler's driving there?" She asked him.

"I thought it was absolutely exemplary, Madam Thornsworth!" The policeman cheerily complimented. "I'm sorry, but you youngsters had no business being on an open highway like that."

"I thought this was a minor footpath..." Brock's wispy skepticism, however, was lost on everyone.

"Hold up, you're the Madam Janet Thornsworth?" Misty asked. "My name's Misty. My sisters run the Cerulean City Gym, and we're big fans! We use your products on us and our pokemon when we wanna look and feel extra good, it's great!"

Janet visibly relax, now that she knew one of these children was a customer. "Why, it just makes my day to meet a grateful fan. Thank you, young lady: I do so love to hear from my company's fans. If your friends behave, I might show you around my mansion. Perhaps you can show me just how much more beautiful your Pokemon are thanks to me."

Misty's eyes were wide with excitement, and Brock seemed happy about the idea himself. As everyone but Ash knew, Thornsworth's ranch was a ranch in name only - it was a massive company with factories dedicated to beauty, and its clothes lines were big hits among fashionistas.

Great, thought Ash, through a dismal stare. This woman was not only a snob who feigned concern for others, but a rich one whose friends and even the law were eating from her hands. Why couldn't it have just been an ordinary jerk, instead of someone with a lot of influence?

"Why are you looking at me so disdainfully?" Madam Thornsworth snapped him out of his thoughts. "Straighten up! Look at the person you're speaking to right in the eyes. Pleasantly!"

On the demand, Ash corrected his posture and tilted his boyish chin up at the lady.

"We rarely ever see travelers in these parts. We see spies trying to steal my ranch's secrets, and thieves, and plenty a poacher, though! What are you doing here?"

"I'm just a Pokemon trainer, ma'am. All I wanted to do today was adventure, make new friends and catch some Pokemon while I'm at it."

"Catch Pokemon, on my land? I knew it! Thief!" She exploded with fury. "You were planning to steal from my ranch! Arrest him!"

"W-What?!" But Ash had no time to defend himself, and the Growlithe had already jumped on him and pinned him to the ground.

"Wait a minute!" Misty pleaded. "This has got to be just some big misunderstanding. Ash may be a simpleton, but he is my friend and he'd never steal a Pokemon even if his life depended on it!"

"Hm..." Madam Thornsworth mulled it over. "Perhaps you can convince me of this...at my own personal mansion."

"Really?" She gasped gleefully.

"Isn't this a wonderful treat for you all? Except for you." Thornsworth glared at Ash, "I dare not trust you near any of my prized Pokemon just yet. You will visit the premises once I tell them to call you. Is that clear?"

Ash nodded meekly, hoping it would be over with soon. That way, Misty could have her fun with all her girly stuff, and he could go exploring with Pikachu-

"And this little fellow simply must join us!" She heartily swept down and grabbed Pikachu with a titan's grip, making the poor mouse to yelp with fright.

"Wait, hey!" Ash objected, but the Growlithe pinned him down again, and he fell down on his backside.

"Don't worry Ash," said Misty. "I'll drill some sense into her head. Pikachu will be just fine." Yet as soon as she'd said that, she ran right up to Janet's luxurious carriage as though the two were best friends. "Oh man, this is so comfy!" Ash could hear her cheer inside.

"It probably won't be that much fun without you." Brock bent down and left the brochure by his side. "Good luck with those Pokemon, okay? But be careful about ranch-owned ones."

While Brock was sincere with his concern for a friend, he would also meet Janet's beautiful niece Larissa inside the carriage, and a very familiar story would ensue.

As his friends left, Janet afforded one more look at him, and smirked. "You know those Growlithe are only pups? I'd have expected a poacher, much less a man, to be able to keep on his feet against them. My own niece plays with them, and she's far less bulky than you. Or actually, now that I look at you, you're scrawny enough play dress-up with her!" The old woman laughed haughtily. "Until later, little child!"

The deputy recalled his Growlithe into their pokeballs, and by the time Ash got to his feet, the carriage was blitzing across the tiny path once again, leaving him alone.

He frowned. Some luck he had - if Misty and Brock weren't there, he wouldn't be able to stop himself going after Pikachu and causing trouble. But he could count on them, so he could wait a few days.

Right now he could get started on catching Pokemon! Perhaps a nearby rancher could give him advice on where to look. Ash just hoped that not all ranchers out there were as mad as that lady was - he'd had enough bad experiences for one day.

As he looked around him to gauge where to start first, he noticed a bottle on the ground - the one that Thornsworth had dropped when she smacked him. Holding it in his hands, it had the picture of a young girl at the back among the ingredients, and its front depicted a ranch setting with the label "Robin Ranch Hair Gel" adorned above it.

Who was this on the bottle? Was this ranch nearby somewhere? And why did Thornsworth have someone else's shampoo bottle when she made her own?


	2. Troublemaker

Little Mareep, Chapter 2: Troublemaker

The girl Ash had seen on the bottle was actually out in the open fields that morning, and while she was a rancher in name, today she was like a shepherd, taking care of her flock of Mareep.

She had a spring in her heeled step, frolicking over from sheep to sheep, and checking each one to make sure it was happy. They all were, of course, and each one had a vibrant shimmering fleece, so wonderfully cared for that rubbing it was like touching silk, and her fingers ran through it like it were field of barley. It was so pristine you could mistake them for being shiny types, but they were all normal Mareep - just well cared for.

A Mareep's fleece built static electricity: when they felt defensive or careless, they released this electricity at the source of their discomfort. But in Melanie Robin's company, they always felt safe. She knew each one by name - from Francina to Paul, from Little Henry to Jolly Sarah - and they knew her by sight, smell and touch. She gave them the best care that a person could give, and any static they had stored only left a warm, tingly sensation when she rubbed their fleece.

It was so soft that Melanie could sit down, bury her head into it, and think for a while. But lately, Melanie's thoughts were about how hard she had to work as a rancher.

Everyone else had help on their farm, but despite Melanie's attempts to reach out she was alone.

Every day she looked after the Mareep, after the Miltanks, and the Bellossum, and all the other Pokemon on the ranch.

Every day she picked berries off of all the trees she had grown.

Every day she had to mix her ingredients so she could ship her products to stores where they'd get ignored.

Yet no one heard of her stuff, and she barely got by financially. All she had to show for it was exhaustion; after a great many days like this, she desperately wanted a vacation.

Somewhere nice, like Olivine City, where she could lie at the beach. Or go see a concert. Or go make friends her age, who'd share her interests. Or just quietly bask in all the attention her cosmetics would get if people paid attention to them like they did Thornsworth's.

Just to be anywhere other than a big field, watching Mareep as they graze.

...Wait, how much time had passed?

Oh no. She had dozed off! At the one time when she took all the Mareep out to a field far from home. Snapping back to reality, where her glove-laced hands were still in a Mareep's fur, she rose up and did a quick head-count.

"Five, ten, fifteen, eighteen, nineteen..." She lost her breath. There was one missing. "Where is the last one?"

Melanie wanted to scream. Looking around frantically for him, she noticed that the stray Mareep - Little Henry, by the looks of it - had already wandered into a faraway field, close to to the nearby wild forest.

Full of wild, fierce Ursaring.

Buzzing, poisonous Beedrill.

Ruthless, creeping Ariados.

And other scary Pokemon.

Melanie ran. She held her cutely styled cane as tight as she could, as if that would make it alright, and ran hurriedly after the Mareep, petticoat rustling all over the place as she went.

She had made it to the end of her field, had pushed the open gate further aside, and was bolting over the bumpy, terrain of dried earth. Little Henry was looking at the forest now, but if she called out for him now she'd be able to-

-trip on the ground and lose her voice.

Curses! She moaned. She was losing time! (And she'd only just cleaned this dress.)

But the dangerous sound of a lightning bolt somewhere up ahead helped her onto her knees, and she was back on her feet in no-time.

Yet in the no-time that had passed, the Mareep had been attacked by a young boy and his Cyndaquil.

"Use Ember!" Ash shouted, and Cyndaquil spat hot blasts of fire at his opponent. The shiny Mareep was too frightened to move away from the attack, and took it head on with a cry of pain.

Ash was surprised - this Mareep was strong, after all. A wild pokemon with electric attacks at this high a level shouldn't be knocked down so easily, but it was so injured by a simple attack that it looked ready to be caught.

"Hold it in place with a leer while I catch it!" Ash ordered, and Cyndaquil leered so threateningly at the wild Pokemon that it quivered and stammered from anxiety. Ash pitied the creature, but once he caught it he could take it to a Pokemon Center.

"Stop! Go away!" The cry of a teenager not much older than him stopped Ash just as he was about to throw his pokeball.

A girl ran up to them, tapping down on the ground with a prettily stylised shepard's cane to keep her footing. She wore a wide-brimmed hat above her golden blonde hair, which was done up in a ponytail with two bangs spread across her forehead. Her skinny legs were adorned with long white stockings, her slender hands were veiled by white silky gloves. Her white dress was puffy by the shoulders, with thin green stripes running down to the double layered petticoat, and had a pink diamond in the center.

Ash had never seen such a dumb getup in his life. But he recognised her face.

"Hey, you're that-"

"Leave Little Henry alone, you big bully!"

Melanie swung her cane at him. He ducked under it by a hair's breadth, only for her to swing again in a great flurry. The shepherd swung with the speed of a master fencer, and the fury of an angered bear.

"Wait!" Ash pleaded as he ducked, leaned and backpedalled out of harm's way. With each swing she came ever closer to leaving the boy crying with pain for the second time that day. "My pokedex says this is a wild pokemon: that's why my pokeball can work on it. You must be mistaken-"

The girl landed a blow to his gut, and Ash tumbled backwards onto his backside. Melanie held her cane to him like the tip of a sword.

"No. Poachers. Allowed here!" She shouted. He opened his mouth to beg her to listen...and she stopped mid-swing. But not because of anything he did.

She raised her head at a large creature, whose shadow had just cast itself over Ash.

It was an Ursaring. A family of Ursaring. Tall, bulky, fire-breathing Ursaring.

They had been riled up from the forest by the ruckus they had made, and they did not look thankful.

The tallest one roared loudly at them, and spewed a Flamethrower attack at Ash.

The boy, in his panic, scarcely rolled out of the way, and scurried to his feet at a running pace. He looked around - the field was now full of a flock of mareep on the other side, all of whom had followed the shepherd here, and Cyndaquil and Little Henry had stopped fighting.

But Melanie was left lying on the ground, as the large bear pokemon drew closer.

Because Ash, in his haste to escape, had knocked her down, without even realising it.

He really was an idiot, wasn't he?

Melanie's foot had been injured, and now she was looking in fearful awe at the Ursaring. Even if she were physically able to move, she was terrified by the sight of the bear Pokemon. Their flea-ridden smell was suffocating her nostrils. And why did her whole flock follow her here where it was dangerous? Her distraught mind was like frozen jelly, wobbly yet immobile.

As one Ursaring drew close and raised its sharp claws for an attack, Ash ran back, grabbed Melanie and dived safely to the side.

"Cyndaquil, we've gotta go!" Ash cried, cradling the shepherd girl bridal style, and ran into the flock of mareep. All the Mareep, Little Henry included, were so terrified by the poacher and the Ursaring that they bolted with the fury of a herd back the way they came.

Ash was close to the other field, but the wild bear Pokemon were giving chase with rising fervour, embers gathering around their sharp teeth.

"Quick, where's a safe path?" Ash asked Melanie.

"My ranch, just keep running straight!" She shrieked, clearly disoriented.

He ran to the next field, surrounded by Mareep, but the bear-like pokemon were getting too close for comfort. A few more seconds and they'd be in danger.

Then Ash got an idea. "Cyndaquil, use smokescreen!"

Understanding the intent, the fire mouse spouted a black gas from his mouth, passing behind him and surrounding everything behind him, namely the Ursaring.

Emboldened with a second wind, Ash sprinted even faster, and he and Melanie were long gone by the time the Ursaring got their bearings back.

Twenty minutes, five acres worth of grassland and one river crossing later, and Ash was exhausted.

He was gasping for breath. He slanted forward, willing himself to inch forward. His shoes and pants were drenched with water and his shirt was soaked with sweat.

"I think we lost them." Melanie informed him, looking worriedly at Ash.

"Great." Ash had earned his great sigh of relief. "Can I set you down now?"

"I, uh...alright." Truth be told, she liked the feeling of being carried home, but she let Ash put her down and she leaned on her cane. They began walking ever so slowly forward, and with Ash getting his breath back, now was a good time to clear some things up.

"My name's Ash Ketchum, by the way."

"I'm Melanie Robin. Talk about a gut-bumping first impression, eh?" She chuckled, and Ash chuckled along with her.

"Yeah. I'm sorry, I'm new here: I didn't realise that Mareep belonged to you."

"And I didn't realise you were actually a kind boy who'd run back to help me." She added. "Don't sweat it; no one can know everything all the time, right?" She beamed brightly at him.

Ash was suddenly aware that Thornsworth and Misty were right - the ranchers didn't tag their Pokemon as wild or trainer types, so any Pokemon he met out there might be a vital part of someone's ranch. He had been unthinking and uncaring - things he should never be.

"I'm training to be a Pokemon master. I only got here recently, but I heard about you, I meant to say. You sell shampoo or something, right?"

Melanie widened her eyes. "You've heard about my work? Thank you! What's your favourite? The hair gel? The apple juice? The skin cream?"

"No!" Ash said defensively. When he saw the frown on the blonde girl's face, he scratched the back of his neck. "I mean, I only heard of them. I didn't buy them." He didn't really care about whatever girls fussy over their looks did, but after the clashes with Misty and Thornsworth he could do with one less angry girl for now.

"What does a pokemon ranch have to do with shampoo, though?" Ash asked.

"Oh, I make lots of things there, with some unorthodox techniques!" She began with enthusiasm. "My Pokemon help out by supplying really special ingredients you can't get anywhere else! Some perfumes and anti-perspirants from Victreebels and Chikoritas, herbal mixes from Bellossoms and Oddish with some dabs of Miltank milk, and my lovely Mareep," she patted Little Henry there and then, "use their electricity to-"

She stopped. All of a sudden, Melanie and Ash were aware of one important thing. Asides from Cyndaquil and Little Henry, not a single other Pokemon had followed them.

"Where are my Mareep?" She gasped.

"Oh no, they didn't follow us?"

"They normally always follow me, but we're not normally chased like that! Or so far away from the ranch!" Melanie's knees were shaking and her whole petticoat began shaking. Some shepherd she was: who had ever heard of a shepherd girl that lost her sheep, and didn't know where to find them?

Ash rested his hands on her shoulders. "Don't panic. I'm confident that they're safe. Cyndaquil's smokescreen protected them too, and they were outrunning the Ursaring comfortably."

Then again, Ash thought guiltily, maybe the smokescreen was a big reason why they got lost at all. "Maybe if we leave them alone, they will come home, bringing their tails behind them!" He said optimistically, but who was he kidding? That wouldn't happen even in nursery rhymes.

"We have to go back for them!" Melanie was already turning around to sprint, but the moment she started she began to fall, and Ash barely caught her in time. In her numerous trips that day she had injured her foot, making it hard to use her cane for anything more than a crawl's pace.

"I'm sorry, but you need to go back and rest. Where's your ranch?"

"Just over there." She pointed to an idyllic ranch across a river stream five minutes away. Over a small arching bridge, there were two houses, a ranch a barnhouse, a fenced-in farmland field and a small lake.

"Good thing that I was praying, as it looks like something out of my imagination." Ash acknowledged, and, carrying a worried Melanie once more, helped her home.

"...You know, your foot might be better if you didn't wear heels." Ash suggested, earning himself a slap.

'Robin's Ranch' was as pleasant and quaint inside as it was outside. Its barn and Melanie's house felt old, though it's obvious Melanie had made some modern updates. The third building looked to have been built comparatively recently, and with light machinery for all sorts of tasks.

Melanie had several chores to do that day, but Ash and his Pokemon had insisted they see to the task instead. Totodile watered the grass Pokemon; Bayleef befriended the lake Pokemon and fetched clean water; Heracross was keeping watch over the barn and performing the brave task of learning how to milk a Miltank; Phanpy collected ripe berries by headbutting their trees. Between them, Melanie's exhausting day of chores had been broken down to an easy, manageable sum.

But the fenced field, which used to be filled with Mareep grazing and playing, had only poor Little Henry standing alone.

Melanie looked at him wistfully through the window. She couldn't even say anything, as Ash handed her a cup of tea. Melanie had changed out of her fancy dress into something less dirty: a simple black shirt and blue skirt. Walking about was proving painful, she told Ash; there was no way she could get the Mareep by herself.

Ash was just as dismayed. "None of this would have happened if not for me." He sighed. "I attacked Little Henry. I got those Ursaring out of their forest. I got you hurt and the flock frightened away while trying to escape."

He put his fist into his open palm and boldy made a promise. "Well I'm going to get them back. Every last one!"

"You really mean that?" She turned and asked.

Ash nodded, and Melanie jolted out of her seat to hug him. "Thank you thank you thank you!" She sounded overjoyed, and her sadness from a second ago was now just a distant memory - but the pain in her ankle was not, and she quietly sat back down.

"I'll send my Noctowl out to go look for them. He can find some and bring them back."

"That won't work. My Mareep have never been trusting of many people or Pokemon except me. After what happened, I'm afraid they'll be extra frightened."

"Then I'll go to them. Don't worry, I'm great at bonding with Pokemon." Ash fondly remembered many adventures he had befriending Pokemon in the wild. "It'll be a cinch."

So Melanie watched as Ash went out the door and into the fenced field. She watched as Little Henry shook at the sight of the boy, who slowly approached him with kind words.

She watched as, the moment Ash got within ten feet of him, the Mareep fried him with a great bolt of lightning.

She watched Ash back off and try again, and again, for far too long. (It was kinda hilarious to watch, actually.) Eventually, Little Henry gave chase, and electricity pursued him all the way as he jump the fence, burst through the door and slammed it shut behind him.

"Lemme tell you," The dusted and blackened boy panted through his pain, smoke rising from his hat, "whatever you do with them works. I'm used to getting electrocuted...but that Mareep hurts."

Melanie wracked her head for ideas. What could they do?

The Mareep distrusted Ash because he tried to catch one and cause this mess.

But they were perfectly comfortable with Melanie, yet Melanie couldn't go exploring for them.

So if there was only one person they'd warm up to, but only one other person who could go out and find them before things get worse, then...what if the other person were...

She had an idea.

An idea the fashionista in her relished.

And she knew that Ash was not going to like it.

"Melanie?" he asked worriedly. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Don't worry, my friend. I know what to do." Melanie, grinning with mischief, told him. "I just got a very pretty idea."


	3. Girla Just Wanna Have Fun

Little Mareep, Ch. 3: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

"You should know a thing or two about Mareep." Melanie began, as both she and Ash walked through her refinery.

Though 'refinery' was a glorified term compared to the giant buildings that industrialists and big farmers had: this was just a place where she stored the mixtures she made - and had a massive bubblebath when there was money to spare. Still, Ash could hear the humming from each engine and boiler, and he could imagine how noisy it got when this place was busy.

"Sure, they get timid when afraid, but since most Mareep have to fear predators, their senses of smell, sight, touch and hearing are excellent. They also remember faces very well, and I...don't like saying this, but-"

"-I caused a lot of trouble and scared your flock away," Ash humbly admitted, "and I'm going to get them all back. Don't worry. So I bet you have a way around this?"

"Yep. We just have to change a few tiny things. Nothing drastic." She lied. They had to change his appearance entirely, into something the Mareep would find much more lovable. But why tell this unsuspecting boy everything at once when she could spring one surprise after another?

Melanie eyed up her model: Ash was about as tall as her. He had a fair bit of black hair on his head, though not as much as hers, and it spiked out messily to the sides (endearingly so, but that wasn't what they needed). While he was in rather good shape, his skin was rough and brittle from years of travelling. Also, he smelled, and that had to be fixed.

She had a lot of work to do. And a lot of changes to make.

The first thing to fix was the touch. Melanie's Pokemon were used to her soft touch, one she had cultivated using some skin cream she made.

"You see, to make it I combine some Sunflora oil with the sleep powder from a Vileplume, then give it an electric charge so it won't induce sleep, add some berries for nutrition and for-"

Ash found it difficult to keep up with her, yet he was enthralled all the same - he didn't know how Melanie, who could only have been two years older than him at most, was such a science whizz. Did everything she say check out? He was bored by what she used it for, yes, but the way she worked with Pokemon to create it was fascinating.

"-Did you get all that, Ash?"

"Eh, yeah."

"Great!"

Yep, the cream she used was great, if Melanie could say so herself; it left the skin softer and slender than before. Apply it twice a week, and it paid off in under a month.

But they were on a tight schedule, so she just filled an entire tub with it and mixed it with mud.

"This way it's both a moisturiser and a mud-bath!" She beamed. The side-effects couldn't be too bad.

"Wait," Ash, wearing only his boxers, stammered in his step when they reached the small pool. "Are you sure this is safe? I can just have a shower and-"

Melanie shoved him in before he could finish that sentence.

"This is just as nice!" She assured the boy, who sank with a ceremonious 'plop'.

"I could add some bubbles if you like!" The girl hollered, but Ash was busy spitting mud out of his mouth.

When he got out five minutes later, the first thing Melanie had him do was shower off, and when they did they could see he had fortunately not grown a third arm or any horrible conditions like that. But his skin had turned as soft as a peach. His hands, rough from years of travelling across forests, mountains and oceans - now they were so light that he could get a papercut from mishandling a letter.

"Mm, you did come out good." Melanie stroked his hand all the way up to his shoulder. "I should try that treatment myself sometime!" Ash winced when her nail poked against some skin, and Melanie backed off. "Though I might make it two minutes instead of five next time. Sorry."

Ash couldn't say he was pleased. He tried touching the palm of his hand himself - he wasn't just soft, he was skinnier. He'd heard that mud baths had that effect, but his arms and legs seemed at least a size smaller.

"Am I supposed to be smaller?"

"Oh, that? Don't worry about the skinny thing, that wears off in a week, easy." She said nonchalantly. Though Ash was feeling nervous; life is so much easier when people don't fuss over looks, but Melanie was making him fret about it. Was this how girls felt all the time?

Wait a minute, he was comparing himself to girls. That train of thought needed to crash.

"Now that that's done," He said almost dismissively, "I can try again with Little Henry. Where are my clothes?" He looked around the room, but there wasn't anything to wear nearby.

"I put them in the washing."

"What!? I still need those!"

"They were sweaty! Your shirt stunk like a Grimer!" Besides, she smirked, they wouldn't work for what she had in mind. Oh hoh, definitely not.

"Now before you change, let's work on your body odour."

The rancher readied one of the worst things she could have shown Ash - a bottle of perfume from behind her back.

No one in all of Agria that day recoiled with as widely opened eyes as Ash did when he the bottle pointed straight at him.

"Wait wait wait!" He pleaded. The memories of Celadon City and its perfume-ridden shops came flooding back. He'd gone so long since a perfume incident that he'd let himself get vulnerable; just glancing at the bottle made him shiver!

"Oh, don't be shy." The blonde innocently insisted, completely naive to Ash's hatred of perfume. "I wear this stuff all the time: everyone on the ranch is used to it!"

"I am not touching that stuff, Melanie! Give me anything else, but not that! Anything else!"

The black-haired boy backed briskly away, but Melanie cornered him against a wall, and squirted the contents all over him.

Upon the first puff, strong, sweet sensations of pomegranates, persimmons and lotus blossom filled the air. The odours clung to his body with each squirt of the bottle, and the smell overpowered his nostrils, crawling up through them and clouding his brain.

Ash fell unconscious on the spot.

The next minute, Cyndaquil, busily working on the ranch, was baffled by the sight of Melanie carrying his semi-nude trainer, unconscious, out of the refinery and into her house. But at least he smelled nice.

When Ash came to, he found himself sat down in a chair before a timber, six-drawer kneehole, with a mirror and many a cosmetic set up beside it.

"Ah, you're awake!" Melanie beamed. She was bent down beside Ash, her face visible in the mirror. "That only took you twenty minutes. See, I knew you were a real trooper!"

'Trooper' was an appropriate word, as Ash felt shell-shocked. He could barely make sense of his surroundings. He guessed that this wasn't the refinery - perhaps it was Melanie's bedroom.

"I'm sorry if I overdid it with the perfume. I guess it was pretty strong. Try closing your eyes for a while if you feel woozy still, but you should be fine, now."

Actually, he wasn't, because he still stunk of it; he couldn't breathe without feeling how 'nice' he smelt.

But he had to get his thoughts together. There was still a towel strapped around his waist, the black-haired boy was wearing a vest that was loose, airy and suspiciously soft. Strange: where did this come from?

And what about his reflection in the mirror seemed so odd to him?

What was she-

"Melanie, what are you doing to my hair?" Ash asked. The rancher was running her hands through his damp hair, occasionally rubbing fingers in place. She hummed a soft song as she worked away.

"Just working." She said nonchalantly.

"On my hair?" Oh great, something boring. With something as dull as a a hair job happening, Ash didn't even have to worry about staying awake, so he let his weary eyes drop shut.

"Yeah. It's a good thing you used so much of my special shampoo; it's making this a lot easier. Hair takes a lot of work to get right, you know!"

"...No it doesn't." He dismissed. "I've never done anything with it in my life and I got on just fine."

"Well no duh. But if you want great hair like mine, you've got to take good care of it. You've gotta comb it, shower it, treat it-"

"No, you don't." The boy bluntly cut her off. "You don't have to be pretty and gentle to enjoy life. Just let it be."

Melanie frowned, and Ash could tell.

"You don't like fashion very much, then." She sighed.

"Not at all." He dismissed her a third time, and that left Melanie quiet. Ash frowned a little too; stupid though this was, this mattered to her. Why not let her enjoy it?

"Well," she said suddenly, with renewed spirit, "let's see if I can't change your mind!"

"Yeah, maybe." He said half-heartedly: he couldn't blame a girl for trying, even if it was for a lost cause. This trainer had been in enough tough battles to know that.

As time passed, Melanie hummed a little song to herself as she worked, a favoured nursery rhyme of hers. Ash had paid little attention to the technique, but gradually more of his focus returned to his senses. "What are you trying to do, anyway?" Ash asked.

"I'm easing your hair out so it grows better."

"Wait, grows?" That got Ash to open his eyes.

Ash didn't notice first, because he couldn't believe it; as clear as day in the mirror, his hair had grown in volume. He had always had a big head of hair, but it had grown drastically into a spiky bush.

"Steady, steady, we don't want to harm anything." Melanie now had taken out a comb, and began stroking the hair into shape.

"H-how did you do that?" Ash couldn't contain his amazement. This just plain didn't happen.

Likewise, Melanie couldn't contain her pride. "It's that shampoo you used. I owe it all to my Pokemon. I give some special nutrients to Sunkern, get them to trade them back in exchange for proper food, and mix those with some Lum berries and Staryu cells-"

"Really? Sunkern can do that?" He thought Sunkern would only conserve their nutrients; what Melanie had said wasn't even in the Pokedex.

"Yep!" The rancher went on to explain her unorthodox techniques in depth, as she continued to comb and Ash shut his eyes again. Whenever Ash came across a scientific term he didn't know about, she told him. He was amazed by how much he learned about Pokemon he thought he knew so well.

This was something people all over the world would buy into. Why weren't they interested?

"So you told me a little about your travels." She changed the subject. "Do you really think you'll be a master one day?"

"I try my best! If I keep working hard, I will be eventually."

"I'm envious. I wish I could see the places you have. You must have made a lot of friends."

"I have, but none that have been good ranchers and hair stylists."

"You think I'm good? Aw, thank you!" Ash didn't know any hair stylists, but it was nice hearing Melanie in good spirits.

"Since I was a kid I've had a big interest in both taking care of Pokemon and in beauty care. When my Dad got too old and retired, I left the city life and took over the ranch: with a few changes, I made it a good chance to follow both passions."

"But doesn't that give you a lot to do in a day?"

"Oh, Ash, you have no idea!" She chuckled bitterly. "I'm left working until late at night all the time. I always felt I could use some help, but this place is just so poorly known, I could never find anyone; nor can I take the time out to go spread the word." At this point, Melanie glanced at her watch; the hair dye effect of the shampoo should be kicking in at any moment - though she doubted Ash caught that detail on the back of the bottle.

"It gets lonely here. I'm just hoping for a lucky break. If only I had a sister or someone to split chores with, huh?"

Ash pondered how odd that sounded. Robin's Ranch wasn't well known? That surprised him; hadn't he seen Thornsworth with that bottle of hair gel? That must mean someone valued her work. Did Melanie not know?

Come to think of it, she had other bottles, like hair dye; did Thornsworth buy those too? But he was about to lose his train of thought.

"Aaand done! Wanna see?"

When Ash had opened his eyes, his hair was so different, the sight of it almost knocked him off his seat.

The familiar black colour was gone, replaced with a striking blonde like Melanie's to the roots, as yellow as a daffodil. His spiky, untamed hair had been tamed to fall delicately straight behind his head, stopping wavily by his shoulders. The hair to the side of his face grew to his neck, where it began to curve elegantly inward to the chin, framing his face angelically.

It felt even lighter than before.

It felt flowy, it was smooth and the tips of his hair tapped soothingly against his neck.

It felt like a style perfect for a girl.

But it made him want to scream.

"Whoo, I feel very proud of that, let me tell you!" The hairstyling girl beamed.

"This is a girl's hairstyle." Ash muttered.

Melanie found it adorable how he couldn't shake off the frown on his face. "Oh, you just look precious. I love how it curves to your chin: it makes you look like an angel!"

She leaned down by his side, lifting the hair behind him up and down. When she let go, it fell back perfectly to the way it was before, as if it was its natural state.

"But this is a girl's hairstyle!" He squealed uncharacteristically. This didn't suit him at all!

She compared her ponytail to his bangs for good measure. "I know, right? We should go shopping sometime!"

"Don't even joke about it!" He fumed with closed eyes, and Melanie giggled in cheeky defiance. If he just loosened up, he'd be able to have fun too.

"W-we can change this back, right?" The formerly raven-haired boy asked, looking for a pair of scissors. He suddenly cared very much about what Melanie did with his hair.

"Oh, sure, but that's not important right now." Melanie cheekily told him, surprised he hadn't figured out the plan yet. But she was right: now he could go off and find the Mareep, right?

The now-blonde boy stood up, finally free to move about. Clarity was returning to him, with the hair job done and the perfume out of his mind, and he found himself with many a question.

"Why did you give me such a girly hairstyle, anyway?" He asked. "Or this girl's blouse?" Oh no, had he been wearing a blouse this whole time?!

"First, feel this." Melanie handed him two palmful's worth of Mareep's wool, curled into a ball. It was sensational to the touch, warm, fuzzy and vibrant all at once. Ash would be smiling if he weren't so suspicious.

"Why am I holding this?"

She then passed him a bra, just large enough for each ball of wool to fit in.

"Why am I holding that?"

Melanie then opened her wardrobe for him to see, and he finally caught on.

"Oh heck no! Just no! I refuse! You are not getting me to-"

The girl couldn't contain her giddiness as she sat by her bed, waiting for the dressing room door to open like it was Christmas morning.

"Are you ready to come out?"

"Never." The voice behind the doors grunted.

"You have to come out sometime." She sang. "Might as well be now."

So the door opened, and Ash slowly inched out, looking completely different to how he went in.

Ash was wearing heels.

Ash was wearing stockings.

Ash was wearing a bra, a blouse and a wide-brimmed hat.

Ash was wearing Melanie's dress.

It was a different dress to Melanie's, which was now in the wash, in that the lacy stripes on his were pink instead of green. But it was still as white as snow, and still puffy by his shoulders, accentuating his new hairstyle. The double layered petticoat arched down to his knees, moving along with every step he took, shaking with each swerve he made. And of course, it had that loveable purple diamond shape stitched into the center, right where the balls of wool inflated his chest.

Ash's face was bright red like a cherry with embarrassment; the cherry at the top of a beautifully decorated cake.

"You're just...it looks so...I..."

That was all Melanie was able to say before entering the mother of all gigglefits. Arching back and rolling on the bed, she laughed long and loudly, so loud that she could be heard outside, so much that tears were coming out of her eyes. The sheer sight of him(?) was just priceless.

"I-I mean, I knew I was good, but wow! You're adorable!"

The blonde trainer just whimpered audibly on the spot. This couldn't be happening. It was all just a dream. He wasn't being laughed into oblivion right now. Any second soon, he'd wake up in his sleeping bag at a camp. In his proper clothes, with a proper hat, with proper underwear, and a real shirt.

But if it was real, he'd run back home and hide in his bed forever.

"You're prettier than me! I swear, you're prettier than me!" The girl kicked her legs wildly against the bed in her joy. Even when she was laughing so uncontrollably that she fell off the bed, she kept giggling as she picked herself back up, dusting off her black shirt and blue skirt.

Finally, her laughter ended (but the massive grin on her face was there forever), looking at Ash gave her another opinion - he looked like a delicate flower.

"You know, you remind me of a flower. Your hair's soft and yellow like a daffodil, your face is full and red like a rose, and the way you stand there, rooted, is like a shrinking violet! Isn't it wonderful to be so many pretty things at once?"

"I'm not going out like this." He whined as soft as he looked. "I'm not." The effeminate looking boy was already inching back inside the changing room when Melanie grabbed him by the puffy shoulders.

"But you haven't seen how fabulous you look yet!" She turned him towards the mirror, but he immediately tucked his head into his bosomed chest. His elegant hair and wide hat obscured his face completely: between them, not an inch of his face could be seen no matter which way you looked.

Melanie took one look at this veil and let out a baw. That was the most precious pose she had seen in her life.

"It's okay." The rancher told the meek trainer, and stepped three paces in front of him. "Take all the time you need."

She only said this because she was now using her phone to take pictures of him.

The moment Ash heard the first flash he shot his head up and gasped openly, only to provide a perfect shot of his beautiful face for the second and third one.

"Now that's too much!" Ash cried, and ran over to her to make her stop, but in the very first step he took he tripped over his high heels and landed on his back side.

"Oh dear: you still need to work on your posture." The girl was sniggering.

"Y-You're going to delete those, r-right?" Ash stammered, too unused to unwieldy high heels to get back up, too flustered by his petticoat to get his bearings.

"I don't knooow," she winded him up, "you came out awfully well."

"Come on!" he cried: he could not let Misty and Brock see him like this again. That one time at Celadon was bad enough. "With all you did, I can't even recognise myself!"

"Aha, so you do like how good a job I did!" The rancher teased.

"What?!" Ash blushed as bright as a rose, completely flustered. He constantly stammered whatever else he wanted to say at that moment, but never got it out. Melanie was twisting his words, right? He didn't actually just say that, did he?

Melanie offered him a hand, but Ash did not take it; his mind had just cracked. She had to bend down, grab the well-groomed boy by the elbow, and walk him back to the vanity table.

"In fact, there just one more thing..." And when she looked at his face, she saw it - those bolted cheeks of his. Melanie wanted to cover those, so she took some blush and dabbed a brush in it.

"Now hold still."

Ash didn't protest for the first time that day: he just looked defeatedly at the mirror. He had no idea what to do and it was all he could manage to keep from panicking.

"Just a little, I promise." She patted down his quivering cheeks with blush to give them a hazel hue. She couldn't obscure the bolts at all like she wanted, but perhaps they were part of the charm.

Ash hadn't said a word: he had only quivered. "Ash?" Melanie asked, but he didn't answer.

She wondered what to do. She didn't want to hurt his feelings too much.

She also wondered if he'd be even cuter with some eyeshadow!

This part was completely useless to finding Mareep, sure, but Melanie hadn't done anyone's makeup since she was eight!

She got some brown eye shadow ready, and Ash closed his eyes like a decorated automaton when her hand drew near. When he opened them again, his eyes had a soft, smokey look to them.

The blonde girl was right: he did look cuter. Since he hadn't said anything, he clearly didn't mind doing more, right? Right! So what else could he use?

Some mascara, she thought, and she took some out. Without argument, Ash let her define his eyelashes, without a single smudge around his eyes; Melanie just hoped the boy wasn't going to cry anytime soon.

"You won't be wearing my gloves," she noted, since they had been dirtied earlier, "so you get a chance to show off your nails to everybody!"

"Please." Ash croaked, and Melanie could hear the faint 'don't' shortly after. But he clearly meant to say 'Please, don't wait: I need to look fabulous!' She took out some blue nail varnish anyway. The girl held one of his hands in hers and painted away: in a moment, he couldn't look at his impeccably soft hands without noticing a deep cerulean blue on the tip of each finger.

Melanie decided to quit pushing her luck; that'd do, for now at least.

"Aaaand you're done. Perfect, even." The fashionista eyed her model from top to bottom. His skin was sublime, his scent was splendid, his face was glamourous, his puffy petticoat dress was fabulous, and his lengthy gold hair was perfect.

"So, how do you feel?" She asked.

Ash didn't look a thing like himself. He looked nothing like the boy who would one day be a Pokemon Master. Instead, he looked completely like...

...like a girl.

"What have you turned me into?" He mewled.

"Hm," she mulled it over, "how about Ashley Robin? My lovely sister from out of the country, who finally came over to visit? And is now going to help me find my Mareep while I'm recovering? That cover has a nice ring to it!"

"...Okay..." Ashley moaned.

Noctowl had returned not long later. The owl Pokemon met Melanie by the window, but she asked him to wait outside; 'Ashley is nervous and needs some time to come out', she had told him. It was easy to forget, with all that done, that Ash still had to go find Mareep.

Melanie slowly walked out into the hallway, and Ash inched even more slowly behind her. She had given her new little sis her crook to balance with (but mostly because it completed the outfit).

"A girl's gotta pride herself in her posture." She told him, and though it ached to do so she tried to set an example. The slow pace made it easy for the boy to follow, and he was learning to keep his back straight, his steps pointed and his movements gentle and dainty.

"I am not a girl." Ash muttered to himself.

"That reminds me: you've gotta sound like it too. Right now your voice is a little too gruff and moany. Can you lighten it up?"

Ash was quiet. Maybe if he ignored her, the problem would magically go away.

"The Mareep have a good sense of hearing." She turned back at him, knowing she was going to win this argument too. "Little Henry will remember your voice if you don't change it."

He gulped, and lightened his vocal chords as best he could. "I can do my best."

Melanie was fortunate she reached the staircase railing at that point, because she needed something to lean on while she suffered another gigglefit. He could even sound bubbly like her.

"You really can do anything you set your mind to, Ash! I like that about you." But he didn't take the compliment well at all: when she looked back at him, he'd dropped onto his knees sulkingly, stockings against the floorboards.

In his sullen state, his eyes glanced at his blue-nailed hands, and that reminded him of Misty. What if she saw him like this? He'd never hear the end of it! What would Pikachu think? What if his mom showed up for no reason? What if-

"Oh, come on, Ash, don't stop now." She lifted him back onto his feet. "You're doing great! If anyone saw you now, the only thing they'd give you is compliments!"

It's a good thing Melanie put that cosmetic blush on Ash's face, because it helped hide the neverending flood of literal ones.

The two Robins inched down the stairs, one more gingerly than the other. At the rate Ash was moving, it would be the evening by the time they made it out the door.

Melanie wracked her head for any encouragement she could give him. "Do you know what helps me out when I feel nervous? Singing. There's a nursery rhyme that I learned in nursery school, 'Baa Baa Black Mareep'. You remember it?"

Ash did, but not that fondly. He was the kind to play with Pokemon toys and win all the imaginary battles with childhood friends.

"Baa Baa Black Mareep, have you any wool?

Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full.

One for my master and one for his dame,

And one for the little boy who lives in the lane."

It was silly, but Ash forgot about his nerves a little just listening to her.

"Now let's do it together, okay?"

And Ash joined in, but very quietly. They sang it together, all the way down the stairs, all the way out of the house. All the way past Cyndaquil, who had been busy cleaning the house, whose baffled thoughts were lost over the melody.

It was only by the second rep that Ash noticed he was already out in the field, with Melanie hiding behind the house door, and Little Henry sleeping behind the fence.

She gave him a thumbs up. Ash breathed in and gathered his courage. He could do this.

Trodding along with his crook against the ground, he opened the fence, and slowly walked in.

Little Henry reared his head from the grass. There was a pleasant looking figure in the distance, heading his way, and a pleasant smell came from her.

"Hello, Little Henry?" She called out lightly and chirpily, and Little Henry could tell it was a friend. Melanie, perhaps?

The Mareep ran up to her side, where she bent down and patted him: her hands felt so soft to touch that he gave a cry of joy.

Little Henry knew there was something odd about Melanie; there were subtle differences only he could tell. But even if this girl wasn't her, he could see her kind intentions, and that's what mattered.

Ash felt an euphoric relief, as he felt just how comforting it was to pat a Mareep, and Melanie cheered from inside the house. It had worked, it had really worked!

When he came back, Melanie congratulated him. "Now you can go save the rest of them!"

"Yeah, I'm glad. Maybe this whole-" Ash said, slipping back into his normal accent, but Melanie held a finger up to his mouth when he did.

"Ah-huh-huh, you've gotta stay in character."

"Maybe this whole," Ash began again, sounding appropriately girly, "dress up to find Mareep thing won't be so bad."

"You see, I knew you'd like it."

"Quit winding me up!" His blush face was quickly becoming his regular face. "I just mean, y'know," he glanced over his puffy shoulder and blonde hair to see Little Henry in the field, jolly at long last, "it's good to see Pokemon happy."

"It really is." Melanie agreed. Even if he didn't share her enthusiasm in some areas, he definitely cared for Pokemon as much as her. That was something they could share anytime.

Noctowl took the moment to swoop in and join them, and a curious Cyndaquil scurried over. Ash's Pokemon eyed him quzzically: the owl barely recognised his trainer and friend, and had to tell Cyndaquil that it was Ash looking like that. But neither of them could understand why. "Don't ask, please." Was all Ash would tell them.

They asked him about the Mareep, and the owl Pokemon confirmed they were safe, but spread out across the valley. He'd located all the stray Mareep and was ready to lead the way.

"Thanks, Noctowl." Ash said, then turned to Melanie. "I'll be back before tonight with all of them, don't worry. Just get well soon, okay?"

"As soon as I can. And Ash? Thanks for everything. I mean it."

The shiny owl soared into the air and flew eastwards, and Ash gently followed him on the ground, crook in hand.

"Remember your posture, Ashley!" She called when she spotted his stride slipping, and he corrected his walk whilst dropping his head in embarrassment. Melanie never got tired of seeing that.

The rancher leaned against the fence, stroking Little Henry's fleece and savouring the sunlight. Today was turning out much better than she expected. She thought it'd be dull, with her doing all the chores; instead, Ash's Pokemon have everything covered, and he was off to get all the Mareep back. So she could just goof off for the whole day - all for doing one satisfying makeover!

...But if she could be honest with herself, she knew Ash hated it. He was a guy, after all. It was just that, for so long, she felt like a slave to work. There were no friends her age within miles, boy or girl; she could never go far to find any because she had to protect the ranch. Ash was the first person her age to have come along in years, and she had a really good time with him.

"Would it be better if I let him give me a makeover too?" She asked Cyndaquil.

He shook his head profusely.

"Oh, I knew it." She frowned.

It was a shame that he'd leave the moment her foot got better, and that the work pileup would return, and this place would remain unnoticed. All she could do was make the most of the time she had.

And view the pictures she had taken. Those flustered looks on his face? Priceless.


	4. What a Wonderful World

Little Mareep, Ch 4: What a Wonderful World

Chapter 4: What a Wonderful World

If anyone asked what young shepherd-in-training Ashley Robin was up to, she was roaming merrily through the sunny fields of Agora, her crook pointed high like a beacon of hope, her flowing gold hair basking in the radiant sun, and her singing voice reaching higher to the heavens, bringing delight to all of nature's creatures who heard her.

If they asked what young Pokemon trainer Ash Ketchum was up to, he was indoors somewhere quiet, minding his own business, because was certainly not disguised as the girly girl mentioned above, not shivering in dismay when the air passed up his dress and made his hair gently wave, and not reminding himself every five seconds to keep a prim posture and his voice gentle in case he needed to speak to anyone.

If anyone saw him while he was out here, Ash was going to cry again.

The disguised boy sulked as his high heels hiked over high hills, and the grassy meadows of Agora softly shimmered with the sunlight. He wasn't enjoying the sights any more, though. Finding these Mareep would take a long time, and people liked the countryside. What was he supposed to say? Misty liked the countryside: what if Misty was watching him right now?

'If anyone saw you now, the only thing they'd give you is compliments.' Melanie had told him that at the ranch. As he remembered that, he remembered he had a job to do. One that only he could do. For that, he could motivate himself. Ash had to be strong! Keep his posture straight and ladylike with all his masculine willpower! Hold his chin up so any obstacle could see his face and how unafraid he was! Don't stop until the entire flock is made whole again!

Besides, if he just thought rationally about it, all he had to do was impress some Mareep. In a countryside this big, there's no way he'd be seen by a single person. So there was nothing to worry about!

Suddenly he heard the engine of a tour bus pacing along the country road. The microphone of a tourist guide blared in his direction.

"...And to your left, you might see one of Agora's trademark shepherds hard at work in the field. Isn't the sight of her just precious?"

A gang of loud-mouthed teenagers leaned over the bus' railings, all of them looking at the shepherd girl with open mouths.

"Omigosh, she's so pretty! I wish I had hair as good as that!" One girl cried.

"Hey sweetheart, where did all your Pokémon go?" A boy shouted. "Didn't you catch any?"

"I'd totally catch her, if you know what I mean!" Another one shouted, and then the whole group burst into heckling laughter, so loud and taunting that Ash could loudly hear it echoing in his heart even when the bus had passed out of sight.

Shaking on the spot, Ash knew he had to take a detour to wash his face: his mascara was running.

Meanwhile, a far way away across the countryside, Misty stepped out of a carriage and looked at the regal Thornsworth Manor in full.

It was the size of a Pokémon gym - no, ten gyms! They could probably host a Cerulean water show inside. The entire mansion, from each pillar to each window, was so artistically crafted that it could have been part of an art exhibition. To think that people lived in there? It was beyond her imagination.

"Ravishing, isn't it?" A teenage girl, with curly red hair and a purple ball gown fit for a princess, strolled out to Misty's side. Larissa Thornsworth, the young niece of the esteemed Madam Thornsworth, let out a dramatically wistful sigh. "It really grows on you. I've lived here all my life and now I just can't settle for less."

"What do you get up to in there?" Misty asked.

"Short answer: anything I want." Larissa waved a gloved hand royally for Misty to follow. "But let me tease your curiosity - do you like opera?"

Misty nodded. She always wanted her sisters to do a water show with singing, but her sisters never wanted to practice it.

"We have a quartet of singing Blissey."

Misty gasped.

"And a theatre for them to sing in."

She gasped again.

"With water effects from accompanying Azurill."

Her knees were getting weak.

"And that is just the start. Now how about we go get you changed into something more chic? I have a wonderful blue gown that would look beautiful on you."

And she squeed on the spot. "Larissa, you are the best! I've had to be patient for so long, and now we get an entire day to have fun!"

"I'm sorry you had to deal with the likes of that tyke you hang around with, Misty. Hopefully this will be sufficient therapy for you. Now, shall we?"

As the two of them paced giddily to the doors, Brock was about to give chase, having written out his entire confession for Larissa, but while they were eyeing the wondrous mansion, he looked at the fields to the left and right, and saw the giant refineries and factories - the 'ranch' part of 'Thornsworth Ranch'.

"Big place."

Unlike the plains around them, of which they took much space, they were rough and industrial. They were large like the mansion, but so uninviting it was polarising. And yet Brock found himself looking at them more than the manor.

"What happens there, Madam Thornsworth?" He asked the woman behind her.

"Oh, nothing special." The woman chuffed, squeezing Pikachu between her arms and scratching his head painfully. "Just business stuff, to make things for girls like your friend and my daughter."

"But I thought we were going to see them."

"Those places?" She scoffed. "Heavens no! I wouldn't want to bore my guests!"

Actually, seeing how great Pokémon care was created would have been more interesting to Brock than watching opera and acting rich.

As they entered the manor, Brock couldn't help but watch poor Pikachu squirm.

"Pikachu doesn't really like being held that way, miss. He'd-"

"Madam, dear boy. Madam Dahlia Elizabeth Thornsworth, and no need to lecture me." She released one arm to wag a finger at Brock. Her firm tone reminded him of an amateur. "I have spent many years learning how to treat Pokémon, and I believe I have accumulated far more knowledge than a young man such as yourself. Perhaps you would be better off watching and learning-"

Pikachu seized the moment to leap free of Thornsworth's grip and bolt away.

"Wait, Pikachu!" Brock called out.

"My precious mouse!" Thornsworth gasped ruefully. "Come back here!"

But Ash had trained Pikachu well; the yellow wonder had bolted around a corner and out of sight before they even took a step.

"How ungrateful! Security!" The elderly woman rang her phone and held it wrathfully. "There is a wild Pikachu running around the manor. Whoever brings it to me gets a pay raise: the sooner the bigger. Now go!"

The first Mareep which Noctowl led Ash to was just cuddled into a ball in an open field. If she was worried, the happy little sheep seemed to have forgotten why.

"Hey, little buddy!" Ash cried out like Melanie taught him to, and the sheep raised her ears with a joyous twitch. She ran over to the shepherd who called her - was that Melanie?

Ash bent down (or tried to: heels were tough) and patted her on the head. Something Brock had taught him once about small Pokémon was to make your pats a soothing rub: since the mareep made a soothing growl, he seemed to be doing it right. He also found a little tag on her neck, saying "Sweet Maria": her nickname, presumably.

"I'm going to get you and all your friends back home to Melanie. Would you please help me find them?"

The sheep nodded her head and pointed it at the bottom of a nearby hill.

"You think you saw another one over there?" Ash asked, and the Mareep nodded.

Noctowl hadn't spotted this one, but they found Coddled Sophie running around, as if the mareep had no idea how to get to where she wanted to go. A kind call and a beaming smile later and she joined Ash's flock. Shortly after, they found Simple Simon and Sour Daria huddled together (Melanie would have given out an aww had she seen them like that) under a tree. Further away they followed a riverbank, and found Gentle Gina, then Giant George and then Giddy Gant.

The eighth mareep, Noctowl claimed, was actually in a small house nearby. A little boy no older than eight had spotted it running with the fear of death near his back garden, and taken it in. Seeing as he didn't seem interested in catching it and training it to win a Pokémon league, like Ash would have at his age, just asking him politely would likely do the trick.

Stay calm, Ash. The boy who was normally a trainer reminded himself. It's just a child. His parents aren't home. But he kept humming the tune to 'Baa Baa Black Mareep' as he rang the doorbell, and as he waited for a small child with a head full of brown hair to open the door.

"Hello, miss. Are you alright?" The boy asked curiously.

"Yeah." Ash answered normally...but then remembered what Melanie told him. "Oh wait, I mean no!" Ashley said as effeminately as she could manage. "I'm just a sweet, delicate, Pokémon-loving little girl who has lost sight of her sheep! It has left me ever so sad. Would you happen to have seen any of them, dear boy?"

"Oh, so that's why that Mareep was out here." The boy said. "His tag said he was Trepid Tom; is that yours?"

"Uh..yes!" Ash scratched his face: maybe that time Melanie spent on a makeover would have been better used telling him the names he needed to know. No, not maybe, definitely. "May I see him?"

Trepid Tom came out from right behind the little boy as he was asked. The stray sheep had been happy with his new company, but he knew that stylised crook from anywhere, and strolled cheerily to Ash's side.

"I wish Tom could stay." The young child sighed sadly. "I always wanted a pokemon to battle with like a big Ampharos. They're so cool."

"I know, right?!" Ash passionately cried. "Have you heard of Jasmine's Ampharos in Olivine City? I've seen it, and it's awesome! Its lightning is so strong I can't believe it doesn't beat rock types! And their punches are excellent: they're like fighting types, but have none of the weaknesses! Oh, you should teach yours Ice Punch. That move takes out so many of their type disadvantages. Thunder Wave works great, too, if you use it quickly enough, but that's a great move for any situation. Just like how my Pikachu uses it, actually: one great example I remember was-"

"Excuse me miss?" The child asked. "Why do you sound so much like a boy all of a sudden?"

And Ash froze perfectly still. In that entire tangent, Ash had forgotten to stay in character. He just heard the topic of Pokémon and lost his senses.

He'd forgotten he wasn't his usual self. But a girl. In a dress.

Ash straightened his back. His heart racing, he fidgeted with his wide hat for one moment, then wrapped his hair around a finger the next.

"Well, you see..."

And he turned straight around, held the brim of his dress in one hand, and ran away as fast as he could.

When the strange person and their Mareep were but dots in the distance, the young boy simply blinked.

"Girls are so weird."

Back at Robin Ranch, Melanie was having a much simpler time. With Ash's Pokémon helping out with the chores, she, for the first time in a long time, didn't have to do anything. She could just lie on her bed and rest, and she did just that.

She wondered when she should expect her sis for a day to return with the flock. Late afternoon? Just by the sunset in time for dinner? The girl supposed she should plan a dinner...but that'd take work, and she just lay down. Ash could cook it himself. Ashley can cook my dinner too, like a good little girl, she thought, with a massive snicker on her face.

But then she remembered, with a frown, that she was the only one having fun out of this. Melanie raised her head up to look at her closet; her main dress was in the wash, and Ash was busy with her spare. Perhaps she could take the time to start work on a fashionable third? No, she should do something Ash would appreciate. That's what friends do, right?

At least Ash's regular outfit would be ready for him when he got back. The pile of clothes was neatly folded up on her vanity table. What was it about boys and their plain sense of clothing, anyway? It was always just a shirt and pants, with maybe a jacket, and in Ash's case a hat thrown in. In Agora city where she spent the first few years of her life, fashion was everything wherever she went - if she wore something as simple as what Ash did, she'd have been ostracised from all her friends.

Did he wear it because he was running around a lot, catching Pokémon and carrying fair girls like herself? Were they...comfy, somehow? Like, wouldn't it get stuffy in those pants all the time? Or was it like something else entirely?

The thought seemed foreign to Melanie. And yet the more she looked at it...

Thirty minutes later, and not one person on Thornsworth Ranch had seen Pikachu. The foul, angered mood Thornsworth would carry her anger with her into the meeting she had scheduled with her committee.

The men and women in suits had fair warning that this would be one of those days.

When the richest woman in the region walked in, no one made a sound. They sat nervously in their expensive chairs, sweating in their expensive suits, and winced with each loud clamp from her stomping heels.

After all, a missing pet wasn't the only thing Thornsworth was fuming over.

"I've seen the financial reports." She glared at her head of finance, who was squeezing his expensive hat.

"Madam, understand that given the season, such a turnout is considerably positive-"

"Profits in Agora fell by 0.05 percent!" She howled. "Do you know what that means? There are people out there, in the world, who have stopped buying my things! That simply won't do!"

No matter how often anyone would try to talk to her about basic economics, she often wouldn't listen: her version was clearly superior in Thornsworth's mind, where the principle was 'always get more, now', and nothing would change that. Never mind that the real reason she got to her status wasn't because of wise management, it was-

"Have you found out yet what our competitors are up to?" She glared at another suited man, her Head of PR, who began searching his stack of papers.

"Financially, none of them have seen a worrisome increase in profits. Thornsworth Ranch is still number one-"

"Their ideas, you simpleton! Do we have anything to steal!" She slammed a fist onto the table; the eccentric wig upon her head shook with the impact. "What are their ideas!?"

"Yes, Madam, you're always right, Madam." He whimpered, hurriedly searching for a new sheet. "Well, long story short, nothing at all. We've already discovered, replicated and sold the ideas our top ten competitors have planned for the next six months."

"Well someone is trying to take an uneven slice from my cake!" Thornsworth straightened her wig back on. "Tell me who or you're fired."

"W-we have noticed a slight increase from some of the smaller, independent farms out there. The margins are still tiny, barely worth caring for, but the most noteworthy I have listed is Robin Ranch-"

"Of course." Thornsworth finally sat down and brooded. "That Robin girl, whatever her name was. She was one of the five entrepeneurs we were eyeing last week." Thornsworth hadn't just been eyeing them; she had bribed the driver to relieve them of the goods which would otherwise have made it to the city. On occasion they found an idea worth taking, but the only one in recent time had been Robin Ranch's goods.

A suited woman, Thornsworth's Head of Security, raised her hand to speak. "Your assumptions are absolutely correct as always, Madam. Some of the smaller ranchers have tried looking for markets we have not yet covered. Robin Ranch has many unique care products which we could...adopt as our own."

"I have tested her hair growth shampoo as you requested, Madam Thornsworth. I can confirm that it is a complete success." Said a man with a giant afro.

That got the most powerful woman in the country to smile, a hideous smile that brought out what crooked features were beneath her plastered face. "So we have a noose to tighten. Have you figured out how this girl does it?"

"We've tried replicating her ingredients in our factories, but our results have not matched our aims." The Head of Research pointed to a man on the committee who had tried their imitation of Robin's skin-care cream; his face was now literally as brittle as cracked paint. When everyone looked at him again for the first time in the five minutes since Thornsworth walked in, he broke down into tears and ran away.

"Don't look at me!" they heard his cry, echoing throughout the mansion. After a moment, the Head of Security cleared her throat.

"We have been watching the ranch owner working with her Pokémon out in the field, most notably when she tends to her flock of Mareep. She doesn't sell their wool, so there must be another reason for her taking care of them. Perhaps the reason behind our results stems from them?"

"Of course..." That was a brilliant observation Thornsworth had just made. "So this 'Robin' girl has been using her Pokémon to make her little wonders? I would like to see these little pets. I'd like to make them work."

They all knew what she had in mind next. That would be yet another crime to Thornsworth Ranch's name. Of course, no one on the committee liked what Thornsworth suggested at all, but no one thought it was a good idea to question it.

Except one little man.

"But Miss Thornsworth, stealing someone else's Pokémon would be unethical and-"

The committee members fought to be the first through the door, scampering away from their madam's anger. The man with the giant afro was among the first, and he was rewarded with the sight of seeing the man who lit Thornsworth's fuse thrown through the window and landing, star-struck, at his feet.

"Oh, don't act so innocent!" Their boss yelled venomously. "We all know how deep this empire's pillars are planted! I own these fields! I decide what women care about! And if my ship goes down, then all of you sink with it! Now get back here, you cowards!"

None of them did willingly. The afro-haired assistant ran straight for a place where he hoped no one would look for him - the factory.

Having made it out of the mansion, across the field and inside the factory, he reasoned he would only have to hide there for a day before he could show his face again. He ran upstairs, past the cold and lonely conditions Thornsworth kept her Pokémon stock in, and shut the door.

But before he shut the door to a closet behind him, a little electric mouse jumped out of his afro, and escaped quietly to the factory floor.

This would have been a good time for Pikachu to find Ash, or warn this 'Robin' girl he had heard so much about. But while he looked around for an exit, someone caught sight of the mouse.

"You there, little mouse!"

Who was in much more need of help than he was.

"You don't look like you've been hooked up to any machinery. Are you free?"

Pikachu's ears picked up and the mouse turned around. Through chunky bars, he saw the eyes of a Miltank, trapped in an unlit corner of metal too small for him to even sit within.

"For now, yeah." Pikachu answered, and walked over to the cell. "But what are you doing there?"

"Standing here, all day and all night, like I'm some stuffed doll." The cow sighed. "Until they need my milk; then they hook me up to a machine until I'm dry and put me back in here."

The thunder mouse widened his eyes in shock. "That's not how they're meant to do it! You're on a ranch, you should be out there eating grass and stuff!"

"We'd all like to." Bemoaned another Miltank just a thin gap away, but whose home was so dark that Pikachu hadn't even noticed it. "But Thornsworth doesn't let us. I don't even know what Pokémon like us normally do."

Pikachu tried leaping inside the bars, but the gaps were too small for even him. "You should be outside! In the sun! Smelling flowers! Rolling into annoying bug-types! Laughing and waving at passing travellers! Something besides...besides..."

He looked up at the ceiling, suddenly aware that there wasn't even a window in the entire factory.

"...This."

Pikachu had all the proof he needed right within these walls: Thornsworth was not a nice person.

"If they catch you," the Miltank murmured, "they'll probably put you to work here too. I like your company, little mouse, but I wouldn't like it if you were caged."

"I have friends who can help." But could he go to Misty or Brock? Even if he could explain it to them, he'd have to find them without getting caught. He got lucky already stowing away in that man's gigantic hairdo; he didn't fancy his chances inside the manor again.

But Ash would be easy to talk to. All he had to do was find him, and since when was that ever a problem?

"With him here, we can free the rest of you. But I can get you out of here right now." Pikachu said. "Just give me a few minutes to find the controls."

Before any Miltank could tell him of the risks, the factory was suddenly flooded with sunlight as its wide doors opened. Pikachu scampered safely behind a corner, and watched as Thornsworth walked close by. She faced the silhouettes of three hooligans who the mouse couldn't see.

"Thank goodness you three are timely." The woman said. "This place is quiet enough to discuss details. I have a job for you that my committee is too spineless to act out. Am I right in believing you will deliver?"

"That's right!"

Seventeen fluffy, wide-eyed Mareep had been found. Ash could count the heads from one, two, three, four, all the way to seventeen. From Sweet Maria to Trepid Tom to Jolly Jennifer to Posh Percina. Their eyes would wander glancingly at the countryside, frequently to each other, but always returned to stare at him. They eyed him with awe. They looked to him for guidance.

Ash didn't feel like this was how they looked at shepherds. More like how they looked at something they liked. Such as, what came to mind? Trainers? No, not quite. Parents? He could relate to looking at Mom like that whenever she did something awesome for him, but if he followed that analogy of a parent through, then that would make Ash-

"-Only three Mareep away from a full flock!" He snapped.

That many Mareep found in two hours? Thank goodness; he might make it back and get changed in time for dinner. Some had been tricky to find, but he hadn't lost any time trying to get any Mareep to follow him, thank goodness, since they all seemed happy to see him - and he could see the grin on Melanie's face if he told her that.

Noctowl returned from a scouting trip and swept down from high above, perching his claws on the stone wall along the road. Ash leaned in and whispered in his normal tone. "Any luck, buddy?"

The bird nodded, and pointed the boy in the white dress towards a forest. When they reached its outskirts, the little blonde shepherd got a chilling realisation.

This forest he was about to step into. There were going to be wild Pokémon living in it. Like those dangerous Ursaring.

"Well it's a good thing you're here, Noctowl!" Ash looked back at his feathered friend, but as he did so he also remembered the flock.

"Wait. If we both go in, then the Mareep will be on their own."

The golden bird eyed the ground, tutted, and shook his head. He had the foresight to know from the start what his made-up master was still realising.

"Then one of us will have to stay behind. How about you go and I stay here? That'd be easiest, since I can't really help out like I usually do, and you can get through very quickly to the Mareep-"

The sheer force of his naivete made him weak at the knees. With embarrassment, he squirmed his elbows under his breasts and blushed like a tomato. "Oh, right. They still won't listen to anyone but Melanie, right?"

Noctowl chirped a little smugly - Ash was a great trainer, but if he had half the foresight that his Pokémon did, he would have avoided a lot of embarrassing situations, such as the entirety of today.

The boy nervously curled his hair with his finger. "I guess I'll just, eheh, go in and find them myself. Which way should I go from here?"

Noctowl pointed a wing straight into the center - at least the path was simple enough. He should find a clearing which the two Mareep were comfortably huddled in.

"Well," The girly looking boy called out, in his fired, pumped up tone, "if any of them want to pick a fight, just bring it on! I'm ready for them!"

There was enough sweat on his brow that Ash could smudge his eyeshadow if he wiped at it. But he had to be brave. The boy tilted his hat like it were a soldier's helmet, squeezed so firmly on his crook that the paint could run, and took one tentative step after another into the woods.

Just like that, Melanie was jogging. Jogging around the entire ranch. Jogging to say hello to Cyndaquil, to Phanpy, to Totodile, to Heracross, to everyone on the ranch. Wearing a boy's shoes, pants, shirt and jacket. With not a care in the world.

It felt great! It was heavier and less airy than she was used to, but she felt so confident in it. Like she was the strongest girl in the world! Why'd she stick to dresses and skirts and heels for so long anyway? This was just perfect.

The rancher eventually calmed down and sat down by Bayleef at the pond, who was about to bring back a pale of water. But the sight of the girl in Ash's jacket made her chuckle, and she dropped the bucket, which began rolling all the way into the pond.

"Don't worry, I got it!" She said, and lunged after the bucket, getting her shirt and shorts muddy. She could have just walked over and picked it up before it went far, but this way felt more right.

Instead Melanie sat on her backside and looked at her trousers. "Good thing I wasn't wearing anything valuable, huh?" This time they both laughed.

Though she might have actually had something valuable - in Ash's pocket she found a red...computer thingy she'd never seen before. Curious, she flipped open the cover, and her head jolted back when it began to talk.

"Bayleef: the Leaf Pokémon. The scent of spices comes from around its neck. Somehow, sniffing it makes people want to fight."

"So that must make this a pokédex. Wait...Really?" She asked credulously, holding it like a caveman. " This lil' thing? This is really how Ash does it everyday? Finds a Pokémon and flips out some machine at it? I could do that easily!"

She tried another one in the database, though it took forever to deal with the interface. "Ursaring: the Hibernator Pokémon. Although it is a good climber, it prefers to snap trees with its forelegs and eat fallen berries. While territorial and incredibly strong, it mostly acts on pleasant instincts, and is fond of food and pleasant songs."

She lay her head down on the ground, hair spread out. "Dude! With the way everyone spoke about it I thought only super-athletic boys were allowed do it!"

Bayleef shook her head - she was fond of Ash, but she knew Ash was mostly headstrong, and that's what got him this far. Yet so long as they set their mind to it, anyone could be a great trainer. Heck, anyone could be great at anything.

"It doesn't really matter what you're born with, does it?"

Here she had thought being fashionable was everything if you wanted people to like you. Yet Ash had his Pokémon, and all the friends he'd made on his journey, without caring about any of that. All without looking beautiful. That was food for thought for a girl who'd been raised in a city where beauty was everything, before coming to a ranch to spread the idea.

That said, she still liked it. It just meant she could go every day without dressing like a princess, or wearing heels where it would just cause you injury.

...Or at least, almost cause you injury. With all her newfound confidence, Melanie could now admit to herself that she wasn't that badly put off as she had acted. She knew she'd be fine in a half hour after twisting her ankle.

But this way, she could finally catch a break. Because someone else was doing her work for her. But now all she had was a frown to her face.

Ash kept walking straight through the forest, crook tightly gripped, praying he'd see the two Mareep in the very next second. His eyes, though, were fixed on the ground, and not in shame this time - he was scanning for any twigs or folige he might trip over.

He never felt so delicate before, knowing a single trip might break his ankle and leave him helpless in the forest like a damsel. The forest odour was hot and rancid. In all his travels he'd never noticed that forests could smell so repugnant - he could barely smell his rich perfume anymore. He should have brought a vial with him so he could reapply it, otherwise the rich scent just isn't as wonderful. Maybe perfume could keep the flies and insects from buzzing all around his gleaming blonde hair; Ash could feel them gathering about it like it were rich honey. He waved a hand to shoo them away and hoped they wouldn't come back. Melanie spent a lot of time combing his hair like this to give it such a wonderful flow and artistic craft, and he didn't want that to go to waste. Like, gosh, if anything happened he wouldn't look nearly this good at all and-

"What am I doing!?" Ash shouted out in fright.

A flock of Spearow deserted a nearby tree. Amidst their fluttering, Ash could have sworn he heard two Mareep give a yelp.

He had to get to them. He'd scared them off once already by being brash and blunt, and was not going to again. As effeminately as he could manage, he called out to them. "Please, little Mareep! Follow my voice! I'm your friend, I'm here to bring you home to Robin Ranch!"

He started jogging, stomping on the ground and the trees. There, just around the corner of a large chestnut tree, he saw the curled tail of a Mareep. "Hellooooops!"

He gasped as he tripped over a root and began plummeting to the ground. But with what flicker of instinct Ash Ketchum had not beaten out of him in Robin Ranch, he slammed his crook into the ground and steadied himself just mere moments before impact. Now, the stylish shepherd was awkwardly held in mid-air, held up by the crook on one end and a foot still caught by the root on the other. His body was shaking: he was like a creaky, narrow bridge suspended over a canyon gap - and if this bridge collapsed now, Melanie's dress would get smeared with dirt, and that would be the worst thing ever: it'd ruin his soft-as-snow fashion style!

When I get back I am cutting myself bald and throwing everything I've worn into a burner.

Gingerly he wiggled himself up the pole, pulling his legs together and let out a sigh of relief. What was even better, the two Mareep actually came to him. They sang out to him, glad that he was okay.

"Oh, you came. Thank you so much!" He answered sweetly. If someone is patient with you, Ash had learned, you should show thanks. He bent down, dress over heels, to pat their fluffy heads, but they started walking away fearfully.

What was wrong, Ash wondered? He was talking just fine. Wasn't Melanie's disguise working? When he turned his head around, he realised that it indeed was - it's just that there was a giant Ursaring right behind him.

A gargantuan. Rough. Stinky. Growling. Ursaring.

Its full, black eyes gazed into the trainer's soul.

"Eeek!"

Ash stumbled backwards, barely keeping his footing, as the bear slowly stomped towards him. He held out his crook like a spear. If Melanie hadn't spent so much time wrapping ribbons on it then maybe it would have given Ash a reasonable defence, but it looked too innocent to scare off even a fly. All the Ursaring did was laugh and bat it away.

Things looked grim as the Ursaring passed out . Ash was nervous, he was frightened, and he had no idea what to do in a time like this. What was he supposed to do?

"Baa, baa, black Mareep..."

He just whimpered it out, as timidly as with Melanie.

"Have you any wool..."

And the Ursaring tilted its head.

"Yes sir, yes...sir, three, bags, full. One f-for my master...and-and one for his dame..."

The bear put down its paws, and retracted its claws.

"And one, for the little boy, who lives in the lane...Huh?"

Ursaring was sat down on its backside, looking at the pretty girl expectantly. When she opened her eyes, he clapped his paws together.

"You...want more?"

He nodded and clapped again.

And the girl sang, more smoothly this time. Maybe it was the high-pitched sounds that the bear was but a sucker for, or maybe Ashley actually could give Jigglypuff a run for her money, but either way, she sang one more verse of the nursery rhyme. The Mareep sat by, too, happy to have made two new friends today. Ashley sang happily this time, as relaxed as a summer breeze. She swayed to and fro as she sang, her locks flowing with the tempo - a sight as pleasing to the Pokémon as a bright daisy.

When the shepherd girl stopped singing, she steadied herself and opened her eyes. The Mareep cried jovially, and the Ursaring applauded her. She had no idea how to react or think in this moment, given how embarrassed out of her mind the blonde normally was. So she stood there and beamed.

Until she noticed the group of Scyther hidden around the trees behind them, who heard the singing and sprang out in a group. But they weren't there to listen to singing, as their poised blades implied.

They wasted no time, either: the leader charged at the two Mareep, who quivered with fear. Ash squirmed his delicate arms together in panic. They were just two innocent Mareep, and he was a timid little shepherd girl! What were they supposed to do in a fight like this?

"...Wait, a fight?" Oh, Ash truly was the biggest idiot there ever was.

"Thundershock!" He shouted, and the two Mareep suddenly found their senses. Lighting sparked from their tails and shocked the aggressor.

As that Scyther fell with a thud, the others growled. His trainer's instinct, which he'd been such a fool to forget, told Ash they needed to get out of here, now, before the Mareep tired out.

"Thunder Wave in that direction!" He commanded, and two yellow, paralysing sparks flew over in the direction that Ash had just come from. There were four Scyther there, and now rather than charging with dynamism, they were static and helpless.

"Follow me!" Ash called, and tried moving as quickly as he could. It wasn't very fast, thanks to the stupid disguise, but it should be enough. Yet two Scyther from behind him were catching up, their bladed hands reaching out.

And then swatted away. The Ursaring had chosen sides, and he liked pretty girls who sang him nice songs more than he did rude bugs who bothered people. With his second swipe, the two Scyther were knocked into each other, and then hurled into a tree bark.

Before Ash left, Ursaring handed him Melanie's crook. "Thank you!" If Ash left that behind, Melanie just wouldn't forgive him. But now they could run, and in a few moments they were well out of harm's way.

The flock hadn't quietened down in their shepherd's absence: they fidgeted where they stood, turned their heads in every direction, and called with sweet baas for the nice girl to return. It took all of Noctowl's power to keep them from wandering more than ten feet away.

But when they saw the rims of that little white dress stepping out of the forest shadows, with Punctual Percy and Amicable Amy by its sides, they all rushed out together to greet them.

They asked about what had happened, and Percy and Amy told them about the battle they had been led through. All the Mareep gasped in awe, as in all their years, none of them had actually used their power to defend themselves in a fight. To think that this shepherd girl Ashley, who was friends with Melanie, could teach them such amazing things!

They looked up at their shepherd girl in awe, who seemed to understand. "Oh, you're all so kind." Ashley blushed, but for a happy reason this time. "It was nothing, really."

The flock didn't think so: they came over and huddled around her, each one looking for a soft pat from their beloved shepherd girl. Their cheers were soothing to the ears, and their warm, silky wool brushing against Ashley's stockings made her feel weak at the knees with comfort, so much comfort that she didn't even care she was wearing stockings. With her skin moisterised by Melanie's treatment, the wool felt extra soft, even to the point of ticklishness.

"Settle down, all of you!" The shepherd girl cried through broken giggles. "We still have one more to find!"

But their kindness overwhelmed her, and Ashley found herself down on her knees, patting all nineteen Mareep with love and care, rubbing them behind the ears and letting their big heaps of wool stroke her legs, rub against her arms, and brush into her dress so bashfully that even her chest and back could feel the goodness. The fluffiness of it all was irresistably ticklish, but that wasn't why she was laughing joyously out loud. The flock was elated to have a big motherly figure to take care of them.

Ash Ketchum had a knack for making friends with Pokémon when he set his mind to it. They were some of the most wonderful creatures in the world. And Ashley Robin could be just as gifted.


	5. AN

Sorry guys I know I promised that I whup update this when my sister got back from uni but with all the crazynes that happens over the holidays s I choux not find the time to do so as for the loyal followeres of this story I deeply apologise for this and that the last fun chapters need to be redone as for the rest of my story's their journey through the darkness has 2 chapters that will be uploaded when I can fix the net for my computer in try to get a wireless adapter as the oneI was useing broke.

A\N I desperately need help with little Mareep I stuck of were to take it and don't know wever to make ashley transition or to make it a cross dress fic and I'm compleaty stuck with to take it

And gothhic fantasy I thank you for your review I have some plans for some changes as the story progresses ash will catch some pokemon non cannon and any help that you offer is greatly appreciated as for the grammar that all done by my Co witer but the were witen by me .

Now I am looking for 4 Ocs for TJTTD as I'm about to slit the story witch will confuse those that don't know what I'm about to do with it I'm gonna have the many ca richer split for some of the chalenges witch will be in the own story's witch will need to be read before the hole story will make sense there will a massive skip in chapter that will be missing witch will be explain ed from each car caters point of view the 2 new story's will be named Dragon's Twilight Destiny' & A Brothers struggle.

This is reader of fate with xRedragonx wish you a happy holidays and a happy new year


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